Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Things become greyer as we age; as a kid it was all black and white - and partially inverted. Ken reflecting on his childhood with Osamu.
1. Prompt 001: Deceive

**A/N: **This is written using table 9 from the ten prompts selection from the lj community: 100_tables. The same community where I got the prompts for And I Called the Sea to Swallow Me Whole. I decided to use them for another 02 fic, although this time it's Ken and Sam's turn. I haven't written them in quite a while and I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic. :)

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 001: Deceive**

Playing games with Sam was impossible.

Perhaps I should rephrase that. It was more winning that was impossible. Playing the actual game was doable – if one enjoyed either being completely crushed or being corrected on every imperfect tactic – but no-one ever beat Sam.

He never let anyone win either; there were stages where I thought it was very cool of him, but I normally only witnessed that when I played with him myself, and then I was normally irritated that he didn't leave me with a chance.

Like the time he was teaching me to play chess. He beat me in four moves at least six times before I managed to last more than a minute. 1.06 seconds actually; he had set his timer.

It wasn't fair, I told him. I was just learning, so how could he expect me to play at his level?

He simply told me I wouldn't learn anything if he went easy on me. But his face was always stern when he said it – somehow unfriendly – and it wasn't until afterwards that I discovered how far I had come in such a short time…and also what lay beneath that deceptively aloof mask.


	2. Prompt 002: Little White Lies

**A/N:** The cute bubble scene. This one gets recycled so many times it's a wonder it's still in one piece.

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 002: Little White Lies**

I had always wondered why Sam always made so sure to keep a little distance between us. Apart from the bubbles in a sense; that was something special between us. Something I could do and he couldn't, and he didn't seem jealous of it at all. Rather, he seemed somewhat proud, but he always looked sad as we watched my big and round bubbles float away to the clouds.

He always said he was fine though, so I figured I was misunderstanding. After all, blowing bubbles was a meaningless activity, and Sam was always so busy it was nice of him to take the time to stand on the balcony with me, mixing the water and cutting the straws and then watching my bubbles drift away.

They were little lies, and I guess that's why nobody ever caught him. Not even me; I still don't really know why. And how do I know I'm not imagining the whole thing and it's not my brain automatically filling the holes in my memory?


	3. Prompt 003: Caught in a Lie

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay. I'm so behind in my postings.

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 003: Caught in a Lie**

I wasn't very good at keeping out of trouble when I was young; more often then not it was Sam bailing me out of something or other…and normally sprouting an annoyed expression. Sometimes I was relieved, as I'd managed to avoid a detention at school thanks to his help, but at other times he seemed rather patronising. And when he walked silently beside me, he sometimes gave the impression of escorting me to prison.

Not that I would have known at the time, having never set foot in anything that remotely resembled a jail cell. And you probably haven't either. But it was discerning, to say the least. And I'm sure you can relate to that.

There was one time I had gotten into a fight with somebody. _He_ had started the fight, but I can't say I was completely blameless, but he'd made me mad and at that age, I didn't have a lot of patience. The moment I punched him though (a little clumsily, and that's to be understood considering my age), I felt guilty. Maybe it was the little blood trickling down a red nose. Maybe because I was at that time, as Sam said on occasion, kind and gentle. But I pulled back…and got beaten for my pains.

Sam had asked me if I was hurt anywhere in the office, and I had shaken my head. It was stubborn pride mostly; Sam let me come to his training session sometimes, and occasionally he showed me the basics so the inability to defend myself put me to shame in his eyes…or so I thought at the time. But we arrived home and he herded me into his room and called me out in my little lie.

Of course, I wasn't smart enough to admit I was hurt, but Sam simply said he had caught my betraying wince back at the office. He said nothing further, gave no indication, but I get the feeling now that I might have made him prouder by pulling back than showing what I had learnt from him.


	4. Prompt 004: Falsehood

**A/N:** Sorry for the late post. Even when they're written I can't seem to find the time to post. :(

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 004: Falsehood**

Falsehood is a very difficult thing to define. As a kid I could always stick my lower lip out in a pout and yell at my brother that he was lying about something or other (it was a common occurrence in our fights) and believe it wholeheartedly because Sam didn't put enough energy into making his disagreement sound convincing.

They were always over little things. Sometimes just over petty jealousy. For most of them, I was wrong in the end, even if it took years to uncover some of those. But is that a lie, or merely ignorance?

Maybe lies are things we do consciously…or maybe they're things as common as breathing. Who knows, maybe we're lying about that as well. After all, it was humans that gave the name.


	5. Prompt 005: Fabrication

**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 005: Fabrication**

Trying to plan an surprise for Mum and Dad was always a pain, whether that be for birthdays or anniversary or something else. I'm not even sure where the tradition came from. Maybe some cousin I've never met, or maybe our parents' generation. I'm not sure, but I know it wasn't from Sam.

I know mainly because I was trying to drag him out of his room one year, and he was busy enough with something to grumble about time-wasting activities like anniversary surprises. I suppose, as far as he was concerned, our parents should be happy they're still in love, maybe do something together, and leave it like that. When I grew a little older, I thought that as well, but at that age I latched onto to any celebratory thing, because it had a certain childish thrill to it.

That might have been why Sam got irritated at me at times like those. It also might have been why he managed to keep me out of his room so long; as an elementary school kid I had trouble understanding how somebody could have so much homework or studying to do. And maybe he hadn't; after all, I spent a lot of my eleventh year of life fabricating tales of assignments as I worked to conquer the Digital World.


	6. Prompt 006: Secret

**A/N:** And cue the mentions of the digivice. Almost unavoidable…

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 006: Secret**

I spent an awful lot of time in Sam's room. It was a habit, or maybe some lingering attempt to be more like him. For whatever reason, I'd spread a picture story or my exercise book filled with clumsy letters and even worse drawings (and that part of me still hasn't changed, whatever else has) while he spends hours pouring over books that had words I could not, at the time, grasp. Some of them I couldn't even pronounce. Mum and Dad sometimes found that cute, until Sam would correct me.

Regardless, I spent a lot of time in his room. I even moved in after he died. I can't really explain why. But when I was in his room during the time he was alive, it was almost always with him. Even before the whole Digivice incident, Sam had made it clear he didn't like me being in his bedroom when he wasn't there himself.

That did unfortunately make it difficult to plan surprises for him. So even though it was pretty stupid of me to think of draping his bedroom with green and blue streamers for his birthday, he found out before I even managed to save enough allowance and buy them.

He humoured me though. He even helped me drape them everywhere. I'm still not sure whether he meant to make me feel flattered or make me feel small.

There's a lot I realise I didn't know about Sam. And a lot I misunderstood as well.


	7. Prompt 007: Half-truth

**A/N:** Okay, so theoretically Ken doesn't use the digivice after Sam catches him until he gets that email. That's what the anime suggests, but I don't think that's possible as Ken would have been hit with the Dark Spore then. Judging from Wormmon, Ken changed a little during his sickness, and according to the games he was sick enough to still be in bed while Ryo went through that tournament. Therefore, when Sam caught him couldn't have been – and was probably before – when Ken got hit with the Dark Spore. So that leaves the time where Ken got hit with the spore anywhere between him getting caught and the email, and that discrepancy can be explained away by the holes in Ken's memory. Therefore, for this fic at least and if I ever get around to writing the full length one of Ken and Ryo, Ken gets hit with the spore soon after Sam's death, but the environment for that spore to grow had already begun festering long before that.

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 007: Half-truth**

Okay, so I might have fibbed a little as to how I had met Ryo, but seriously, what was I supposed to say? I couldn't exactly proclaim we had met in another world and fought a strange critter called a Woodmon together. Nor could I say I was partners with a Wormmon that said he had been waiting forever for me and not Sam who everybody waited for.

Although Sam was still mad at me at that point in time, so maybe I could have said it…if it wasn't so fantastical no-body would believe me. In any case, I said I met Ryo around the corner while Sam was inside the shop. Not the brightest idea, as Ryo then had to explain why he had to leave so hastily. Something about his mother, I think he said. I wasn't really paying attention, as Sam was half-glaring at the both of us.

He knew I was lying. Telling a half-truth really, as we really had met around a corner and there really was a mother involved. But that was a Swannmon guarding an egg and not a mother expecting her son home soon. And that was a corner of – I can't even remember what – and not of a street. But I was sure he wouldn't believe the truth, not to mention he would have gotten mad all over again about that Digivice…


	8. Prompt 008: Exaggerate

**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 008: Exaggeration**

Sam never had to exaggerate anything. Or if he did, he was never caught at it. After all, he was the genius, so my milestones seemed rather…tiny in comparison.

It was no wonder then that I would up stretching the truth on occasion, if only so I could cult a little attention as well. Not that it always worked. Should have known my parents wouldn't want to promote stuff like that.

Of course, little me was rather selfish and didn't see that.


	9. Prompt 009: Make Believe

**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 009: Make-believe**

I did tell Sam, once. Between the first and second time I went to the Digital World. He hadn't believed a word of it…which in a sense was somewhat odd as he could normally tell when I was lying in a heartbeat.

He _said_ he didn't believe me in any case. Now that I think about it, he could have been jealous. I was jealous of almost everything else after all. But he thought it was a make-believe world, that I was making it all up. Maybe he even thought I believed in this made-up world or something, or…

I don't think so though. He would have told our parents otherwise. Like that time I sprained my wrist doing something on the monkey-bars but didn't want anyone finding out. So that meant he thought I was lying or he knew I was telling the truth and didn't want to accept it.

I didn't even realise what I had then. Wormmon, and Ryo…and Sam even.


	10. Prompt 010: Lie by Omission

**A/N:** And that's it. Geeze, I spend weeks thinking and less than a day writing them up. Go figure.

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**Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf  
Prompt 010: Lie by Omission**

I've never told anyone all the details between what happened between me and Sam. Even if I wanted to, I can't because I don't remember it all. There are too many gaps in the memories of my childhood, too many shadows that obscure certain things my mind still does not wish to reveal to me. Sometimes, I wake up clinging to an old memory instead of a dream or the tendrils of sleep and I find it fitting like a jigsaw puzzle into an incomplete spread. But I've still got a lot of blank spaces left in my memories.

But even from what I do remember, I've never told anyone everything. I _can't_; it's not something I can just say aloud, in one seat. Not in several seats either; the topic comes up quite frequently with some people. Not my parents. They skive around the topic. Not my friends; it only came up once…or maybe twice. Actually, I'm surprised it hadn't come up more than then, considering they heard me blabbing on about it in the desert…but they never asked. They realised it was a sensitive topic.

I talked about it with Wormmon though. Of everyone, he knew the most. Of me and Sam. But even to Wormmon, I couldn't say everything. The conclusions to our conversations would be misleading; I don't know whether he thought, or still thinks, that I've said it all, or respects that I have secrets even from him and does not question.

I don't know. On some days, I feel like I want to tell him everything without omission, but at the same time I don't think I'm prepared for that just yet.

I think that's also why I can't remember things still. My mind knows I'm not ready.


End file.
